Joe Bear and the Famous Sugar Bear June 29, 2007

Joe worked his way through the early days in the city hardware store, in the freight yards of Virginia, gigging in clubs when he was 14. He grew up listening to Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, James Brown, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. The only white kid in a soul band, he toured the South back in the day when that just wasn't done. The group, Wayne and the Exceptions, recorded Have Faith which got to "#34 with a bullet" its first week on the black AM stations. Then the label pulled it. Depressed and downhearted, Joe found his way up North, went to film school and started building sound tracks for industrial and feature films. Soon, original songs started to flow from Joe's pen not for projects, just because. He recently released two albums, Bear Country and Something Strange to rave reviews. You can taste the urban and down home flavors mixing well in every piece. It's all about the groove, but the lyrics'll get ya'.

Free

Official Website: http://www.levittpavilionpasadena.org/calender_artist.php?artist_id=70&date=2007-06-28&pos=2